During the applicant's previous round of funding, AHRQ support enabled the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) to develop an infrastructure for successfully advancing health services research (HSR) in under-served populations. We accomplished this via a three-pronged approach to infrastructure development: increasing the number of UTMB minority faculty conducting such research, recruiting additional faculty, and strengthening the training opportunities through formal courses, seminars and tutorials in essential areas such as biostatistics. By partnering with well established university centers, programs and support services, the applicant has created a sustainable infrastructure that is moving the careers of UTMB faculty forward. We hae increase the number of health services researchers has been increased and UTMB is ready to take the next step toward the ideal state: having a cadre of independently funded minority health services research investigators, who will serve as role models and mentors in ongoing efforts to recruit junior faculty and students from under represented minority groups into health services research. [unreadable] [unreadable] Over the next five years the applicant's specific aims are to: [unreadable] 1. Continue to support and expand the Health Services Research infrastructure through strategic partnerships, in order to increase the number of investigators with external funding: [unreadable] a. Extend the new Clinical Research Scholars Program to health services researchers. [unreadable] b. Increase infrastructure resources for scientific communication and dissemination. [unreadable] 2. Increase the number of UTMB faculty and medical students who conduct health services researc.: [unreadable] a. Facilitate access to pilot funding from UTMB research centers. [unreadable] b. Develop and implement a Health Services Research selective to introduce School of [unreadable] Medicine students to this area of research. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]